We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jeanne Zierhoffer a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jeanne, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

I had extreme difficulties in communicating with other people, feeling like I was consistently putting my foot in my mouth and was socially awkward. My nickname became “butter-ball” based on an innocent comment my Mom said, and it stuck, for an 11-year-old in Jr High it was extremely uncomfortable. With no tools at my disposal, I chose drugs and alcohol and became the life of the party, and I was, what a great cover-up, so I thought. “They,” say for people like me, it’s jails, institutions, and/or death, well isn’t that great. For me, I didn’t care, I was miserable. I had friends, so I thought until I pulled several knives out of my back, some that is literal, “I mean the knife in the back” and ran away with the carnival when I was 14, I lived a very crazy, unusual drug chasing, get out of my way life, for approximately 16+- hard years, more about that in my upcoming book.

In the late 1980s, with the help of a true friend, I choose to conquer my battle, with drugs and alcohol, not an easy one either, I went in-patient, and into a halfway house in Dorchester MA for 6 months. I WAS BATTLING FOR MY LIFE and it was a battle, I chose, that I am well worth the effort!

I got my first job in sobriety, not easy either, and the young ladies I worked with were a little abusive, bullies to be more precise. Me being a little emotional, to say the least, I took everything personally, as if they went out of their way to make my life miserable. That’s when I started my growth journey, I completely shifted how I spoke to them and when they noticed that they didn’t bother me anymore they stopped. Let the journey begin, it’s an inside job that show’s up outwardly. Today, I am an empowered leader, a leader of leaders! As I wandered through my journey in life I became a life-long learner, absorbing personal and professional growth at the deepest level.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m Jeanne Zierhoffer, Authentic Approach of Simplicity in Structure of learning, with Fast Results! I grew up in a small affluent, white-collar town outside of Boston MA, called Lexington, a very historical town with lots of tourists coming through to enjoy the rich history of the Town. I could walk or bike all over, it was a simpler time in the late 60s and 70s, with no cell phones and devices and we got home before dark or at dinner time. I had chores to do and I grew up in a white-collar affluent town, my parents were both blue-collar workers, my Dad worked 3 jobs and my Mom worked as well, which was not normal, at that time. That is where I understood good work ethics, I wanted something my Dad gave me a chore to earn it, no silver platters, I am grateful for that today.

We knew each other and were more involved in our community at a deeper level, we met in person. Our phones were attached to the wall and we used Rolodexes for keeping people’s addresses and phone numbers organized. We only had a few channels on TV, and simpler, decisions seemed easier, I was also a kid, and I wasn’t making big decisions at the time. Then came Jr High and life completely changed and I was not ready for that, scared. I had older siblings that were not timid back then and it was thought that I was the same, I was not! As you read earlier my path of destruction to the big RISK of admitting I had become a drug addict.

I have fallen many times, and that doesn’t matter, the only thing that matters is, how I STOOD BACK UP. What was the lesson? I continued on my journey of personal and professional growth with the understanding that it is an inside job, the more comfortable I am with myself, the bigger impact I have on my community. I surround myself with like-minded people and have a network of professionals, I call “my friends” and they are true heart-centered friends. I have and have had many coaches and mentors, they are a very important part of my journey and life!

I often receive the comment “it’s easy for you,” is it? Or, do I choose to go for my goals and my dreams? I believe that I have a choice, when I come to a fork in the road I can go left, or I can go right, and the decision is mine to make. I have made many bad decisions in my life, I have taken the wrong fork in the road, on many occasions. Today, I choose where I go, I create my life by design and that was not always the case. What I do to make better decisions is based on two questions;

1. Is it going to take me closer to my vision?
2. Is it aligned with my mission?

When the answer is YES to both of those questions, I say yes! If the answer is No, I simply state it’s not aligned with where I am headed in my life, today.

Do you know the pain points of your target customer? Be the solution to the pain point, know your industry. For example, in my consulting business, I am encompassing people’s journeys with each one, reach one, and teach one. I saw a need for simplicity in structure, many business consultants overcomplicate the problem making it difficult to see a simple solution and over-whelm their clients.

” I teach the simplicity of structure, keeping it simple like meat and potatoes. I add no fillers or by-products, yet it will be an amazing dish, just like your journey with me. This may sound bland, I am going to make sure that it is sound, it is rich with content and purpose, just like sinking your teeth into a wonderfully prepared filet, with no bones to spit out.”
Systematic, Flexible, and Compassionate are words that have been used to describe me as a determined business owner and Entrepreneur. As a 6-figure Income earner in residential real estate sales, I coach, train, and teach professionals to achieve and exceed their goals with strategic fast-action implementation steps. I enjoy contributing to others to help them understand the importance of effective communication and building relationships to collaborate in the most powerful way possible.

An authentic and strategic connector with compassion, I lead by example! With 30+ years of sales and marketing expertise, I choose to make a difference in this world as an advocate for my elderly mother/mother-in-law, whom both suffered from Alzheimer’s disease; I am a Certified & Licensed Sales & Relationship Trainer and Coach, a Certified N.L.P. Master Practitioner, and a Certified N.L.P. Coach. I assist professionals, real estate associates, entrepreneurs, and business owners in taking their business to the next level; as a conscious contributor teaching others to be THEIR OWN “shining light!”

Have you ever had to pivot?

Consistently pivoting and being flexible in my business is how I keep moving forward, even if it is baby steps. One of the major pivots for me in my business career was when I moved to Charlotte NC, after being a successful multiple 6 figure income garner real estate agent in Massachusetts. What a huge leap of faith, no license down here and a completely different world, “no sarcasm” oh boy! I travel back in forth to Massachusetts for almost a year, closing out and transferring my real estate business to another realtor.

I moved my parents to Florida full-time they had been snowbirds for years, I moved my mother-in-law to Charlotte NC both of them were diagnosed with memory impairment / ALZ. I became full-time a caregiver for both of them which is a full-time job. As their advocate, I realized how devastating the lack of being able to communicate was increasingly more important than ever.

I invested in my professional growth even further during this time to become an expert communicator, unfortunately, I am human and sometimes I react instead of relating, the difference is I am aware. I started down the language pattern path, learning more about human behavior and body language to better serve my Mom and mother-in-law. Huge things began to happen in my life opportunities to coach, speak and train, I did social media for local brick-and-mortar companies and was getting them huge results by changing the verbiage and connecting with their audiences.

This continued for 7=- years and then they both passed as a direct result of ALZ disease, it became brutally silent for me. Now what? Back to Real Estate? I would have re-build my business in NC, that is a ton of work, who am I? What do I stand for? I started asking myself a lot of questions. I hired a coach and we worked through building a business model: as a consultant, coach, and Trainer, with my 30+ years of experience it would be easy, LOL, not!

I took all my years of employment, my sales expertise, and all of my training and implemented it into a step-by-step, strategic business model that was uniquely based on my life experiences, As I moved forward, I invested in certifications to validate and better serve my clients, the difference between me and others is I INTEGRATE all of my learning immediately. Today I am one of the TOP coaches, and trainers @ Codebreaker Tech, teaching certification to new coaches and trainers for our corporate office. I am an award-winning International Speaker, and I have amazing clients

I have won awards, remember where I came from “jails, institutions, and/or death” TODAY:

“2021- 2022 Nurturing ICON” award @ Codebreaker Technologies
“Exceptional Woman of Excellence” award in the category of “Engineering Change by Engaging Communities & Empowering Communication” award received by Dr. Harbeen Arora, one of the top 100 leaders of the world.

Any advice for managing a team?

Keep your EYE on the PIE! People before profits, do not force a round peg into a square hole. I have a large team of trainers and coaches and I keep them moving forward with weekly strategy sessions, we celebrate our wins big and small and we stay focused on servant leadership. How can we better serve our community using our system and processes, I have a structure in place for them to follow if they choose or not, we work as a team!

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We do weekly team workshops to invite participants, to help build their business and teach the business owners how to better communicate to build their business, it is a win, win, win! We have a plan in place to implement our technology and do training for our participants every 6 weeks or so… Having a structure to follow, with an actionable next step, building competence within our team to make a bigger impact and get our clients FAST results!

Team building is one of my areas of expertise, “Encompassing Your Journey” I have a lot of people wanting to join the team and I say NO, they are not a good fit! Keeping your team balanced and knowing who is on your team based on their personality values, and their representational system is KEY! That is one of the key areas I train companies on how to hire the right person, it’s all team building.

Being strategic in understanding your BIG picture and your well-formed outcomes of what you want your team to look like is important in answering the right questions about what the team member can bring to the table that your team may be lacking, Knowing your team at a deeper level, building rapport within your team, giving them the opportunity to shine in the community, support them on getting them fast results.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jzlifestyleteam.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jzierhoffer
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jzierhoffer/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/jzierhoffer
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRHZHoorPwJffVRBdFp39yQ
• Other: How are you showing up? Get a FREE report https://crackmycode.com/wow